


Gotham and Lex

by purplefox



Category: DCU (Comics), Smallville
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Oneshot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-30
Updated: 2019-05-30
Packaged: 2020-03-29 14:06:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19021471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/purplefox/pseuds/purplefox
Summary: Lex was not too fond of the city and he was honestly wary of the inhabitants. Some things a man wanted to move on from.





	Gotham and Lex

After the years he had experienced and the people he had met and lost. Lex would have to say when it came to Gotham, he was not too fond of the place. Not fond of the dreary city and the rules it seemed to follow. No, he was not fond of any of it at all.

But while he lived firmly in Metropolis and was not leaving, Gotham would not leave him alone. That was the important thing here. Lex had his troubles; he had his foils. He had the things that kept him up late and night. He had the memories he tried to cling to. He had the things he tried to fix and the things he tried to leave alone.

Gotham was a city that ate you up, sucked you in. if you managed to live it was not for very long. Gotham killed people and it changed people. There was never a simple thing or person in Gotham. There was never anything easy about Gotham. There was always two, three or even four different faces to people in Gotham.

That was just the way that it was. It was painful but it was the way that it was, Lex knew that. He knew that so well she he had learned when it came to the inhabitants of Gotham it was better to do more than watch his back. It was better to hold his breath and figure how to deal with them one by one.

Thanks to Superman and thanks to Lex’s son, he could not ignore Gotham even if he wanted to. He adored Kon-El. He wanted to strangle Clark behind Kon-El’s back but he would not. He loved his son way too much for that to happen. Although Clark pushed him to some madness sometimes. Lex was not going to slip. Or at least he was trying not to.

But Kon-El had gotten himself waist deep in some trouble without even knowing it. Lex found it ironic how intertwined Kon-El was with the entire Batclan. That was right up Batman’s alley. There was no way he would let Kon-El slip away.

And Kon-El’s cute little crushes on the various Robins had never gone unnoticed. Granted Lex could not blame his son. To be exposed to things like that, people like that. Well he knew how fascinating and hard to resist men from Gotham could be.

Resisting was not easy and with them flirting back and being the best of friends. Honestly his son was not going to go anywhere. He would not stray from his little birds. Lex was not going to tug them away either. They had been there for his son first and while he was suspicious of them. He always would be, he could appreciate the happiness they brought to his son.

They taught Kon-El lessons that he would never learn under Superman. Things he would never dream of in Metropolis. Lex would have done it himself but it was actually better coming from the little birds. Who knew how those things would come out under him. With the birds it was way better, Kon-El would listen to the lesson and the warning.

Kon-El would maybe listen and then scold Lex. Or sit down and watch him with eyes way older than his face should hold. It always hurt Lex to see those eyes. If he could go back, he did not know what he would do. Maybe be the first to save Kon-El.

He loved his son but Kon-El had suffered a lot. Negligence and greed had brought him into the world. A world that had no idea what to do with him. Brought him to people who had no clue what to do with him. Tossed him into situations he was not ready for.

Kon-El had almost died for a world that was still trying to trust him. Lex hated it but this was what Kon-El wanted to. Although in Lex’s eyes he had proven more than enough.

Pity it took for Kon’s blood covering Clark for the idiot to come around to the fact that he had a son. To the fact that Kon-El was real and he was not going to go away. That he needed him. Kon-El had been seeking Clark’s approval and he had almost died to get it.

Lex hated Clark for that alone. He had been bitter watching Clark weep and sob. Kon-El had been unconscious the entire time he had done so. The love that Clark had held deep in his heart. It had taken a tragedy to bring it out.

It had killed him to tell Kon-El everything but he had promised himself and his son he would not lie to his face. There would be things he would not tell his son but no deliberate deception. Just a bit of privacy here and there. They had both agreed to that.

It hurt then. It had hurt to walk past Batman and his team and let Clark have his moment. It had hurt to let the League who had done nothing for his son go to him. It had hurt him to bite his tongue but he had done it. He would do it all again for the happiness in Kon’s face. No matter how it hurt him. He would do it for Kon-El. He would do anything for his son.

Lex poured himself a long drink of whiskey as he opened his balcony doors. He was not facing the planet. No, he had gone to the other side so that even in the darkness he could face the city he really wished he could ignore.

The lights far away, deep into the night. He could see it faintly and he knew it was there. Gotham. The city of darkness and hurt. It was so hard to ignore it and so hard to deal with the people that came from there.

It was easy to foil and ignore Batman. Much harder to ignore or even avoid Bruce. The damn man knew which notes to hit in Lex. He always came up softly, not in the playboy way but in a way that made Lex crave the past and crave the bit of home that Bruce had brought with him.

Selina was the opposite. It was easy to push Selina away. Much harder to push away Catwoman. He had been pushing Selina away for almost most of his life. From the moment that he had realized that having Luthors around her was not in her best interest.

It had been for her sake. Because that was what he had promised the moment her father had placed Selina in his arms. He had stood next to Bruce and sworn to the man with blue eyes and a crooked smile. Lex had not wanted to let him down. He had sworn more seriously than others had guessed.

Catwoman was harder to push away. He had to look deep to find the Selina he knew was underneath. It was hard to ignore her. She was everything he admired in women, she was dangerous she was strong and she did not need him. It was temptation.

But under the suit lay Selina so Lex kept his hands to himself and his dick in his pants. He kept the flirting to a minimum and reminded himself that people from Gotham were dangerous to him.

It was easy to fall for them and to get sucked into their pace. Hard to get rid of them and hard to get them out of his heart. If they did not leave you one way or another, they would wreck you because people of Gotham never left Gotham. They always went back to that cursed damned city one way or another. Once you were caught you never left.

Bruce would never leave. Selina left but she always went back. Dick Grayson was not even a native but thanks to Bruce he was tied to that cursed city as everyone else was. Jason Todd had died and come back, he was still knee deep in the city. Always a phone call away.

Gotham kept taking and taking. Lex toasted the dark city as he took a deep sip from his glass. Batman was easy to foil, easy to ignore. Bruce? Not so easy. It was easy to read his eyes, easy to read his body language because the damn man knew himself that Lex was weak to it.

Weak to him and everything that was promised in that gaze. The same to Selina. She came to him as Catwoman enough times to know he would not turn her away right away. She took jobs from him. Teased him by showing up at fundraisers in the most scandalous ways to capture his attention.

He loved that part of her, so strong. So beautiful. But underneath still lay Selina and he was cautious of dragging her into his world. He had already kept her out once. The years did not matter. She was still with Gotham and she would never really leave it.

Bruce for all he showed himself to Lex. He would never leave Gotham and the Batman behind. That was more depressing than it should be to think about. To think that it affected Lex this much was actually amusing. He was really that foolish it seemed.

Bruce, with his smile, his blue eyes that had so many emotions. Gotham changed so much in people but curse it all to hell. Lex still found those things appealing. Appealing and way too dangerous. He should stick to this city of light that he shared with Clark.

Keep his interactions with the people from Gotham to just chaperoning his son and making nice with his son’s friend. Continue avoiding Batman and Selina. Keep his guard up around Catwoman and Bruce. Those are the things that he should do.

Because he had come way too far, fought too hard to be taken down so easily from people of Gotham. Lex had done a fine job of staying away from that sort of darkness. He was not going to get himself knee deep in that sort of trouble. They were far away and he wanted to keep it that way.

Kon-El was too bright to be brought into the muck of Gotham. Clark had taught Lex that, as often as the clown was over there, he had never gotten sucked in. but then again Bruce was not trying that hard to entrap him. Not the way he tried with Lex.

He was trying so fucking hard to trap Lex. Not as Batman, Batman was professional. Lex shuddered as he though of Bruce. Bruce was quiet and patient. In boardroom meetings that were almost always in Metropolis. He was soft, he was patient and he kept reminding Lex with every moment he was there of what was and what he could have.

But Lex was not foolish he was not a brat so he kept his hands to himself and his dick in his pants. Kon-El should be proud of him. He was not going to touch Bruce. It would go no where, it would only cause trouble.

Lex had been lucky enough to escape once. Young enough and way too dumb to realize how easily Bruce could wrap him up in knots. Thankfully, Clark and the mess of Smallville had come right afterwards. Clark had saved him in more ways than one and doomed him in more ways than one too.

It was strange how Bruce had never told him about them, about Gotham and their parents. Lex had sworn that was something that the founders would have discussed. Batman played cards close to the chest but this was Lex they were talking about.

Or maybe it was Batman not keeping the secrets but Bruce. Lex closed his eyes as he recalled the past. He could remember, laughter, happy adults and happy children. He could remember heartbroken frustrated teenagers. He could recall the scent of Gotham and how happy others were to be there. He could remember how it had felt to love there, be apart of things there.

He finished his glass with a sigh and returned inside. It was because he could remember those things that he knew keeping away was for the best. It might be hard to push Bruce away, hard to deny him but Lex had Metropolis and a son to keep an eye on. He had more things to risk than before.

 

**Author's Note:**

> So this came about because I was working on another one of my stuff and then i had an image of Lex brooding about Bruce and Selina. Selina and Bruce battling it out over Lex is hilarious to me but Lex conflicted and running FROM them is good too.


End file.
